The new animated comedy Bobbleheads: The Movie is like Toy Story meets Home Alone. Parents Rosa and Jim design theme parks for a living, but are having a tough time getting a new rollercoaster just right for their latest client. So they decide to take a weekend trip away to a ranch with 13-year-old daughter Audrey and her baby sister Bella family in order to clear their heads. What the family doesn’t know is that Jim’s bobblehead toys—pretentious British kitty Purrbles McCat (Julian Sands), professional skateboarder Kelani (Brenda Song) and comic-book heroine Ikioi (Karen Fukuhara)—come to life and help the family when they are not looking. As Kelani says, the bobblehead creed is that “Bobbles never bobble in defending their humans”. However, Kelani is concerned that the family went AWOL, and is worried about who will keep baby Bella out of trouble without her there to help. However, that soon becomes a lesser concern when Jim’s estranged bumpkin brother Earl (Luke Wilson) shows up at the house with his greedy girlfriend Binky (Jennifer Coolidge) and slobbering dog. Earl has brought his brother baseball player bobblehead Deuce (Khary Payton), which he plans to swap for one of his brother’s more valuable toys. The bobbleheads will need to learn to work together if they are going to defend the house against these strangers who have quickly made themselves at home and are helping themselves to their humans’ valuables.

Bobbleheads: The Movie seems to be geared towards both kids and adults. For the younger audience there’s the wacky adventures and physical humor of these bobbleheads and their Home Alone-like antics as they try to take out these unwanted home invaders. There’s also the slobbering dog and easy to identify “bad guys” and “good buys”. The film also provides a moral/lesson where the bobbleheads learn that their differences and faults are what make them unique and special. At the same time, there’s also this more adult setup where brothers Jim and Earl haven’t spoken in 15 years due to a falling out from Earl selling their father’s bobblehead collection (yes, that’s really the plot). Plus there’s also Cher…or should I say Bobblehead Cher… who shows up briefly in a spaceship from the bobblehead motherland as a representative of the bobblehead high council to help inspire our group of bobbleheads and teach them to love themselves (once again, not making this up). I don’t think younger audiences would even know who Cher was, and may not get that excited over the arrival of Bobblehead Cher. Though there is a humorous part during the credits where she tries to teach the other bobbleheads to dance and everyone is smashing their big heads into one another. Most of the music in the film comes, surprisingly not from Cher, but from 70s/80s LA punk rock trio The Alleycats. There is one scene that is reminiscent of the classic 80’s movie musical montage as the bobbleheads prepare and prep to execute their elaborate attack plan.

While the film has some humorous moments, I’m not sure this is a movie that is going to demand many repeat viewings. It’s missing that charm that makes a normal animated film into a classic, and despite having Cher appear, is not a musical. The animation style is pleasant, colorful and fun, and the animators have really considered the smaller details, such as the fact that the bubbleheads are constantly bobbling, even as they are just standing still (though sometimes you just want to reach at the screen and stop them). Even though the film has only been released on DVD, the picture quality is excellent—I wouldn’t have even guessed it was SD. The audio track provides clear dialogue and helps the bring the wacky adventures of the bobbleheads to life in your living room, while also showcasing that 80s-style punk/pop soundtrack. Unfortunately the release is pretty bare-bones and doesn’t include any digital copy code or bonus material, just the disc packed in standard DVD case with a cardboard slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:23:03)

• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

No bonus material has been included.

Final Thoughts:

Bobbleheads: The Movie is a well-animated and somewhat entertaining family adventure in the vein of Toy Story meets Home Alone. However, some of the plot is overly-ridiculous and characters like the disgusting slobbering dog, country bumpkin villain and his even more evil girlfriend are a bit one note and over-the-top at times. Also, it is an animated feature that has Cher appearing as herself in bobblehead form, and yet they don’t even have her sing! The bare-bones DVD release looks great and sounds quite good, but unfortunately includes no bonus material. Folks may want to rent it, or check it out on Netflix (where it has also been released) first.